Evil, fear, and horror films

  • Thread starter Thread starter roseproject
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
R

roseproject

Guest
A non-denominational christian fb friend of mine posted this status about Halloween recently; pretty much saying that it’s one thing to go to a pumpkin patch or corn maze, or dress up like a puppy and asking for candy, but another thing to be entertained by witches, goblins, and haunted houses (she’s probably referring to pretend ones). Basically, she was suggesting that fear is, in itself, evil and from the devil. This would mean then that doing certain things like watching horror films would be a sin since you are taking pleasure in this feeling of fear which is “rooted in darkness”.

She also shared an article about why Horror movies are not good to watch…annafinley.wordpress.com/2011/06/10/what-you-may-not-know-about-horror-movies/

I mean on one hand, was fear even a thing before the fall? On the other hand fear could be kind of a gift to help us avoid certain things instinctually. Would this mean that something like riding thrilling rollercoasters is rooted in darkness seeing as one of the main reasons people ride those is to get scared?

What are your thoughts?
 
I love horror films! That’s what I think. And if you think about it Satan is the ultimate villain, and he is one scary guy. One scary guy we read about all the time. Roller coasters are scary, but I bet your friend rides them.
 
There are definitely some valid points.

I know a very holy priest, a Benedictine, who watched ‘The Rite’ and ‘The Exorcism of Emily Rose’ when he was very ill. I don’t see how this is too different from reading a book about exorcisms. In either case, it can be a means of increasing one’s awareness of spiritual realities. I even have a relative who returned to Church after watching ‘The Rite’, so it’s not fair to say that horror films are necessarily bad.

To be sure, there are many sadistic and evil horror films that should be avoided.
 
roseproject said:
A non-denominational christian fb friend of mine
Click to expand...
I have met “nondenominational Christians” who believe it’s a sin to watch anything at all on television, other than the religious programs broadcast by their approved televangelists.

Some people will believe anything.
 
Now I do think that movies like the “Saw” is a bit too gruesome, blood thirsty and cruel.

The ones about Satan or possession never frighten me, but some people get nightmares.
I guess it depends on what Clint Eastwood said, “a man has got to know his limitations”.

And then of course those that make some sort of bad inuendoes toward God are not spiritually healthy.

Then some are sexually orientated and rather masochistic.

Some are quite interesting. Like the one about the girl who was babysitting and kept getting these freakish phone calls. Or the story “Ten Little Indians”.

So I suppose there are many things to consider.
 
BartholomewB said:
I have met “nondenominational Christians” who believe it’s a sin to watch anything at all on television, other than the religious programs broadcast by their approved televangelists.

Some people will believe anything.
Click to expand...
True.

I know one non-denominational Christian who thinks it’s a sin to listen to secular music.

I avoid the slasher type horror films but I like the supernatural horror movies. They are my favorite genre of movie. I don’t like so called romantic chick flicks.
 
An interesting article.
Story lines for horror movies are demonically inspired. The source feeding the information into the minds of the writers is evil, and you can bet that there’s a lot of dark spiritual activity going on in a room when one of these movies is being watched.
Click to expand...
I’m sorry, but unless this sort of information comes from someone like an established exorcist, I’m going to have to consider this nothing more than a personal opinion which is being strongly passed off as established fact. I find this troubling on an intellectual level, especially when one is claiming to have somehow arrived at this information from an exegesis of Scripture. Frankly, no you haven’t. The Bible doesn’t state, and there is no Biblical principle, IMO, which would insinuate that every horror movie has been directly inspired by a demon, and that “dark spiritual activity” occurs in any place where such a movie is being watched. Again, IMO, this information is simply guess-work, a sort of intuitive take on things.

Having said, I do believe that this person is actually on to something. As someone whom I admire (and whose credentials as an exorcist I do respect) once stated, and I paraphrase, “Satan isn’t under every rock. He’s under every *other *rock. And then, if you put down the first rock and pick it up again, he’s under that one, too.”

Moreover, there is the principle of glory: do such films in some way give glory to the demonic? Do they make it seem glamorous and wonderful and do they in effect pay tribute to devils? IMO, they often do: and that in itself is reason enough to avoid them.

… and as an aside, simply gauging the merit of a film (or anything else) based on how much pleasure you get out of it is an extremely problematic way to look at things.
 
Yeah. I don’t think horror shows are inspired by the devil or demons. I mean if they were the bad guys wouldn’t be so stuck in stupid. They’d be enticing. They’d convince you that they were no worse than you were. They’d convince you the bad was already in you. And that it was good to express it. And then they’d win heroically in the end.

But I don’t watch them. I can’t. Except maybe the supernatural ones like Sarcelle said. But even those have to be pretty tame. I just can’t stand seeing pain.

But Halloween is supposed to be a time when people make fun of evil spirits in a way. By dressing their kids up like miniature ghosts and zombies. By showing their kids that it’s not something to be afraid of. I don’t know. I think it’s harmless. But when I was growing up we weren’t allowed to go out. We weren’t allowed to do any of that. We couldn’t even give out candy.

Peace.
  • Trident
 
I think it’s as everything… The evil one’s influence can be found everywhere. I think horror can be quite bad if it leads the viewer to a place of despair. Which I think many types can do. For me, films like “Texas chainsaw massacre”, or “event horizon” can do this. If a movie fills you with dread, which you can’t shake, it’s probably not a good for you. Some horror films can be quite terrifying and dark, and yet not leave you in a bad place. But yeah it’s hard to strictly define films as “good” and “bad”. Someone who is strong in their faith could probably watch anything, but then the question is, would they want to? It’s always good to ask yourself why you enjoy a certain film or to show. Sometimes the reasons in themselves are not good.

I like whoever quoted Clinton Eastwood about knowing your limitations. Very true. I recently started watching “true detective” and had to stop a few episodes in. I felt quite sick and exhausted after watching each episode. I wasn’t surprised to learn from Wikipedia that the plot eventually made reference to satanism (I stopped watching before I came to that, although it was pretty obvious). Not to say the series is necessarily bad… It may even be good overall, because the darkest stories can often be the best. But some things I’d rather not dwell on. My husband was fine with it. Yet, When we watched a series called “The fall”, about a serial killer, I enjoyed it quite a lot but my husband found it immensely disturbing. People have different buttons…

I think it is easy for non denominational Christians to be frightened of things that shake their faith, horror can really shake your faith, and non denominational Crhistians don’t have a lot to fall back on in times of faith crisis (they literally only have their faith… They can’t set themselves at ease with the wisdom and rationale found within the church) despair is the opposite of faith… And remember what yoga said… He was all against fear. “Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering” maybe she ascribes to the wisdom of yoga. Which isn’t totally stupid. 😃
 
One of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit is “Fear of God.” It inspires us not to sin and toward eagerness to please Him.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top